House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is calling on the Department of Justice to launch a comprehensive investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen and the broader handling of executive actions during his time in office.
The demand follows the release of a detailed 100-page report Tuesday morning from the committee’s Republican majority.
The report focuses on what it describes as efforts by Biden’s inner circle to conceal signs of his cognitive decline, including whether official documents were signed via autopen without the former president’s full awareness.
“Faced with the cognitive decline of President Joe Biden, White House aides — at the direction of the inner circle — hid the truth about the former president’s condition and fitness for office,” the report stated.
Comer’s report also highlighted what it described as a “haphazard documentation process” for presidential pardons, suggesting that in some cases, there may be uncertainty as to whether Biden personally authorized the actions in question.
“In the absence of sufficient contemporaneous documentation indicating that cognitively deteriorating President Biden himself made a given executive decision, such decisions do not carry the force of law and should be considered void,” the report continued.
The Oversight Committee urged the Department of Justice to review all executive actions taken during Biden’s term, from January 20, 2021, through January 19, 2025.
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“Given the patterns and findings detailed herein, this review should focus particularly on all acts of clemency. However, it should also include all other types of executive actions,” the report said.
The investigation also examined Hunter Biden’s alleged involvement in the pardon process.
Fox News Digital previously reported that former White House chief of staff Jeff Zients told committee investigators that Hunter Biden was present for discussions about several pardons, including those granted to relatives.
“It was towards the end,” Zients said in a transcript excerpt included in the report.
“What comes to mind is the family discussions. But I don’t know — that doesn’t mean that was it. It was the pardons towards the end, very end of the administration. And I think it was a few meetings, not many meetings.”
According to the Oversight report, “Zients testified that President Biden included his son, Hunter Biden, in the decision-making process for and meetings about pardons.”
The document also claimed those discussions included potential pardons for five Biden family members, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and members of Congress who served on the January 6 Select Subcommittee, along with their staff.
Over a three-month period, the committee interviewed 14 witnesses, including several long-serving Biden aides. Despite nearly 47 hours of interviews and depositions, Comer said that not one witness acknowledged having any concerns about Biden’s cognitive health.
“Throughout the Committee’s investigation, senior Biden White House aides presented a perspective of President Biden’s cognitive health completely disconnected from that of the American public,” the report said.
“Not one of the Committee’s 14 witnesses was willing to admit that they ever had a concern about President Biden being in cognitive decline. In fact, numerous witnesses could not recall having a single conversation about President Biden’s cognitive health with anyone inside or outside of the White House.”
The committee’s findings also criticized Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as White House physician during Biden’s presidency. O’Connor invoked his Fifth Amendment right to nearly every question during his deposition, responding only to confirm his name.
Comer has asked the D.C. Health Board of Medicine to investigate O’Connor’s actions and determine whether disciplinary action is warranted.
The report described O’Connor’s decision not to conduct a cognitive exam on Biden as “reckless” and accused him of issuing “grossly misleading medical assessments.”
It added, “His refusal to answer questions about the execution of his duties as physician to the president — combined with testimony indicating that Dr. O’Connor may have succumbed to political pressure from the inner circle, influencing his medical decisions and aiding in the cover-up — legitimizes the public’s concerns that Dr. O’Connor was not forthright in carrying out his ultimate duties to the country.”
Comer’s letter accompanying the report recommended that the Board of Medicine review whether O’Connor produced “false or misleading medical reports to the American people.”
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O’Connor’s legal team told Fox News Digital that he invoked the Fifth Amendment to protect doctor-patient confidentiality.
Biden allies have denounced the report as politically motivated.
Some former officials who spoke to the committee said public concerns about Biden’s mental acuity were amplified by media coverage and Republican commentary following his widely criticized June 2024 debate performance against President Donald Trump.
In a July interview with The New York Times, Biden said he “made every decision” on his own while in office.
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